Abandoned Breaths – A book review & author interview with Alfa

Alfa’s Abandoned Breaths has received the high honour of carrying Amazon’s #1 Best Seller badge in the category of Grief and Loss, among her already number one status in Amazon’s Hot New Releases & Women’s Poetry.

Abandoned Breaths book review

Alfa’s debut book Abandoned Breaths took my breath away and then breathed it back in through my soul.

There are few writers today who can weave words as artfully and authentically as Alfa can. She has a rare gift for revealing the deepest feelings and skilfully writing them into her gorgeous prose; feelings we have all felt, sometimes without knowing we felt them until a certain word flies off the page and slaps us across the face.

I expected this book to be good but it has exceeded every expectation. Abandoned Breaths is classic Alfa; amped up and full of delivery. This book is unflinching in its honesty and gorgeous in its vulnerability, but the message carried throughout the book is a message of hope, resilience, and strength. Alfa’s work is timeless, and Abandoned Breaths will go down as a literary masterpiece.

The poetry in Abandoned Breaths is brilliantly placed within the book in four different parts: Squall,Monsoon, Zephyr, and Exhalation, which adds to the feeling of being taken along an often hard, but utterly gorgeous journey.

From Squall:

NOCTURNAL

You have lived in the dark
for so long
that you have forgotten,
a soul needs light
in order to grow.

EMPTY

How do you explain
the absence of a person
to your soul?
How do you
break the news
that it may never
be whole again?

From Monsoon:

An excerpt from TESTIMONY

“You were not singled out in the womb for despair.
Roll those shoulders back and puff out that soul.
You were carefully stitched together with breathtaking intention.”

From Zephyr:

BURIED ALIVE

I hope you never have to do it.
I hope you never have to bury
your soulmate,
knowing they still walk upon this earth.

From Exhalation:

GRIND

My soul has teeth,
and there are maddening
nights,
like tonight,
when the sound of
the grinding – trying to
obliterate the taste
of you, and of what
remains…
is really just too much.

Abandoned Breaths will wreck you, and then it will put you back together again in the most beautiful way.

An interview with Alfa

Alfa answers ten of my need-to-know questions.

1. Does writing exhaust or energize you?

Writing is usually the result of being assaulted by memories, or from the conversations still playing in my mind. So, when I finally let them ‘breathe’, I am generally exhausted at the end of it. I try not to post anything that I’ve just written because it will be so scattered and all over the place that it doesn’t have the same impact it did when it was pouring out of me. I generally look at it the next day (or 2, or 3, or years) and rework what doesn’t flow. I still have journals from 30 years ago that I have not touched. I cannot find the strength to open them. Maybe someday.

2. What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

A typewriter. I write on the computer and on my cell phone frequently, but nothing compares to when I’m sitting in front of my typewriter with my vanilla vellum paper, (it’s the only kind I like) and simply allow the emotions to be absorbed by the ink. I don’t plan anything when I type. I free-write.

3. Do you think anyone can be a writer? Successful or not?

If you’re articulate and have a knack for grammar you can probably ‘write’. With that being said, unless you’re passionate about it, the chance of being successful is slim. I don’t believe in accidents when it comes to vocations. We have passions implanted in our hearts and souls. If writing is there… you know it.

4. Do you Google yourself?

I have googled myself. But if you google ALFA, you get ALFA ROMEO cars. They’ve cornered the market on advertising and marketing so I never come up. Now if you google ALFA POETRY, you will get my poems as images that come up, and I think my Facebook and IG pages are listed 10 pages south.

5. If you could only leave behind one quote, one poem, one piece of your soul, what would it be?

She’s been through more hell than you’ll ever know. But that’s what gives her beauty an edge… You can’t touch a woman who can wear pain like the grandest of diamonds around her neck.

6. What is your proudest accomplishment?

My 4 children. They are living proof that beauty blooms even during imperfect circumstances.

7. What advice would you offer new writers?

Write what you know, and never stop. In your own voice. Your own style. Don’t write about what’s popular. Write about the things that keep you up at night. Write about the things that you find lurking around your heart’s corridors. Write what you know.

8. What is the weirdest reaction you’ve received from a reader?

My name. I’ve had quite a few people ask me “What is an Alfa”. I say it’s me. They say “No, what IS an Alfa. Why is your page named Alfa”? Well, it’s named after me. I’m Alfa. And I’m female. I get mistook for being male. A lot.

9. If you didn’t write, what would you be doing?

I’ve had careers in the medical field my whole life, and I’ve also written ‘privately’ my entire life. I can’t imagine not having that outlet. But if I wasn’t writing, I imagine I’d be more invested in my penchant for upcycling old furniture pieces, and painting the world turquoise.

10. When is the next book coming out?

I have a couple I’m working on. The next one I’m hoping to release as early as this summer is a chapbook titled ‘Heartache wasn’t my intention’.

Since publishing her first poem online January of 2015, ‘Alfa’ recognized worldwide as simply ‘Alfa’, has amassed a social media following of nearly half a million fans. Regarded as one of today’s most influential and highly respected poets, Alfa’s stunning body of work can be found featured on top trending sites around the globe.

It was during her early childhood years when Alfa discovered her ability to express emotions through writing and her passion was born, but it is the lifetime of love, lessons, and loss that she has lived that adds her striking authenticity to each piece of poetry and prose she writes. Unapologetic about her ‘realistic’ take on heartache, she writes to let her readers know they are not alone in their pain.

That authenticity gut punches the soul so beautifully it leaves an imprint long after the last line is read. She credits her followers for inspiring her to write and post everyday. They keep her on track with their kindness, feedback and interaction. Alfa is real. She has lived what she writes and she writes what we have all felt but could never express ourselves.

Alfa holds degrees in English Literature as well as Radiologic Sciences. Radiation Physics is her arch nemesis but Radiation Oncology stole her heart early in her career. She has a penchant for popcorn swimming in butter, and has also been known to order apple licorice by the carton online.

Her children, the lights of her life, were the catalyst that pushed her to force her words and her smile on the world. She wanted to leave something behind for them, a legacy, proof of existence that shouts, “I was here, and full of dreams, love and hope.” And shout it does, across the world and into the hearts of everyone who reads her.

From a wide-planked porch in Kentucky, Alfa is most definitely indulging in ice tea while painting something turquoise, or crafting something extraordinary out of vintage buttons and brooches.